Boulder County authorities are coordinating a search for a missing injured hiker in Eldorado Canyon State Park, five miles south of Boulder.

Lance Hering, 21, of Boulder, was hiking in Eldorado Canyon State Park late Tuesday evening with a companion, Steve Powers, 20, also of Boulder. While free-climbing on a rock face near the trail that runs between Eldorado Canyon and Boulder County’s Walker Ranch open space preserve, Mr. Hering fell, striking his head. Mr. Powers estimated that Mr. Hering fell approximately 10-15 feet, but then rolled down a steep slope another 30 feet before coming to rest. Mr. Hering reportedly lost consciousness.

Mr. Powers reported that he remained with Mr. Hering until he regained consciousness, then left him to summon help. He notified the Sheriff’s Office of the accident at approximately 5:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. Sheriff’s deputies and search and rescue personnel returned to the scene, which Mr. Powers had marked with articles of clothing, but were unable to locate Mr. Hering.

A ground search of the area has been initiated under the direction of Sheriff’s office emergency services personnel. Three search dogs from Front Range Rescue Dogs (FRRD), and approximately 25 members of the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group are presently conducting the search. Additional resources from the Boulder Emergency Squad and Alpine Rescue groups have been requested. A media helicopter from

KCNC-TV assisted by conducting a fly-over of the area early Wednesday morning. Paramedics from the Pridemark Ambulance Service are also standing by at the scene.

Local residents have been alerted to his disappearance as have area hospitals. His family has also been notified.

Mr. Hering is a white male, 21 years of age, approximately 5’8” tall, and was last seen wearing long white pants and a torn black T-shirt (fabric from the shirt was torn away to fabricate a bandage for his head wound).

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Boulder County Sheriffs Office immediately at #303/441-4444.

This media release will be updated as additional information becomes available.

This media release may also be found on the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office web-site at: www.bouldersheriff.org

BOULDER - A Marine visiting home on leave from Iraq remained missing Wednesday night, one day after he injured his head in a climbing accident. About 40 searchers with dogs, horses and a helicopter scoured the steep trails and creek beds in Eldorado Canyon State Park, five miles south of Boulder.

Lance Hering, 21, of Boulder, had been "bouldering," or freestyle climbing, with friend Steve Powers, 20, also of Boulder, when Hering fell about 10 to 15 feet. Hering slid another 30 feet down a steep slope before coming to rest, Powers told Boulder County sheriff's deputies.

"It's very ironic that he survived all the combat that he saw and that he's injured here at home doing the thing he liked to do best," said his father, Lloyd Hering, who was at a command post waiting with his wife, Elynne, for news about their son.

Hering was unconscious for about four hours after the fall, according to Powers, who remained with his buddy.

Later, Hering came to, but he appeared to be disoriented, Sheriff Joe Pelle said. "Lance was described as what I would call 'loopy,' " Pelle said near the command post that had been set up outside the park's visitors center.

"He knew Steve and he knew he was hurt, but he would keep repeating things," Pelle added.

Neither man had been wearing a helmet, the sheriff said. The pair used fabric torn from Hering's black T-shirt and fashioned a bandage for his head wound.

Hering fell about 10 p.m. Tuesday. When he began to regain consciousness about 2 a.m. Wednesday, Powers said, he decided to get help.

Hering's parents said their son had returned from Iraq about a month ago, and he had returned to his Boulder home during the last week. Hering is familiar with the area where he fell because he had climbed it when he was attending high school in Boulder, his parents said.

"He's a very self-sufficient person," his father said. "It would be like him to hike out and try to take care of his wound. We're afraid he might be confused in walking around."

Another long day working the Eldorado Canyon/Walker Ranch area and no signs of Lance. We've got lots of experienced SAR talent out there. A moderate weather front moved across earlier this evening kept choppers grounded. Once weather clears and the winds drop we're hoping copters with IR spotting equipment will be able to overfly the area tonight. Lots of bear and lion signs throughout the area with a few direct sitings have made the search that much more interesting. There is NO indication that Lance met up with one of the large predators. Several kill/feeding sites have been found and investigated. All remains were of typical prey animals, mostly deer. Dogs have not registered any strong hits despite the number of handler/dog teams and many hours put into gridding the area. Family, friends, and caring community have been unofficially supplementing the SAR teams. Well over 100 searchers were onsite today. We are not giving up hope!

I will be the first to apologize if he's really out there, but am I the only one who finds problems with this whole story? 1) "Bouldering at 10 pm" - it is really dark up there. I've lived and bouldered in Bldr for 30 years, and maybe they were just up there B.S.ing for hours - but they were not bouldering at that time of night. 2) It's a tough call, but a head injury and unconscious for 4 hours? That's a medical emergency necessitating ASAP treatment; you dont sit for 4 hours. You strip down to your shorts, put everything else over the injured person to keep them warm, then race for help. 3) After his friend left him, "at 2 am," it took him 2 hours to go a mile and a half downhill? 4) Especially for an athletic soldier, going uphill to Walker Ranch would only take an hour, even in the dark on that trail. From there, a prearranged ride could be waiting. 5) Trained search dogs couldn't follow a trail, even with fresh blood to start from? I'm sorry, but this cries out as an AWOL ruse, and at the very least a serious interrogation of the friend is overdue. I sympathize with any conscientious method of refusing to return to Iraq - but if this turns out as I suspect, they need to throw the book at his friend and any other accomplice, for risking the lives of 100+ volunteers, chopper pilots, etc. If I'm wrong: The whole search and rescue concept is flawed. As with the lost RMNP ranger last year, these searches somehow miss the person, despite all the manpower. Then, hikers stumble upon the victim later -- inevitably, not far from a trail. What the hell's wrong w/ the search system?

I will be the first to apologize if he's really out there, but am I the only one who finds problems with this whole story?

... maybe ...

In reply to:

1) "Bouldering at 10 pm" - it is really dark up there. I've lived and bouldered in Bldr for 30 years, and maybe they were just up there B.S.ing for hours - but they were not bouldering at that time of night.

He's a marine. He loves climbing. He's on leave. Squeeze something into every minute. Manage after dark with a little artificial light. The invincable teenage years aren't so long ago for them.

In reply to:

2) It's a tough call, but a head injury and unconscious for 4 hours? That's a medical emergency necessitating ASAP treatment; you dont sit for 4 hours. You strip down to your shorts, put everything else over the injured person to keep them warm, then race for help..

Maybe - or, being young, you think "Man, if he would just wake up then we could walk out of here." ... then ... "Uh-oh, he's awake but he's in no condition to walk out. Now what?"

In reply to:

3) After his friend left him, "at 2 am," it took him 2 hours to go a mile and a half downhill?.

I wonder about the accuracy of that time estimate. He didn't have a watch and it seemed like eternity?

In reply to:

4) Especially for an athletic soldier, going uphill to Walker Ranch would only take an hour, even in the dark on that trail. From there, a prearranged ride could be waiting.

Prearranged ride? Did I miss that they had a cell phone and had coverage?

Bill, the time and event specifics as reported by are repeated in every newspaper update - and earlier in this very posting. here's the official sheriff's site w/ continual updates. http://www.co.boulder.co.us/sheriff/hering.htm - he fell while bouldering, about 10pm... friend sat w/ him, leaving him about 2am only after he regained consciousness. Friend contacted authorities after 5am Not even the most zealous superboulderer I have ever known has any tips or power left after a couple or 3 hours hard bouldering, and the power stuff in Eldo isnt moderate low jug traversing a full moon or headlamp is adequate for. It's hard, lots of highball, and crimpy. By dark, you're trashed and you've gone down for beers. I was involved in a high peak rescue many years ago, and believe me, I ran all the way out the several miles from Cathedral Wall to the Bear Lake trailhead in RMNP on all adrenaline, in about 1 hour. Dark or not, I cant understand anyone taking 3 hours (2am to 5am) to go an easy 1.5 miles when a friend may be dying. As I said, I will apologize if the story holds up, but I wont be surprised if he turns up healthy in Canada or somewhere.

It's also possible that his friend killed him and made up the whole story about the fall, etc..

Bill L

Edit: The only time given on the sheriff's site is when they were notified: 5:00 a.m.. I'm a little skeptical of the accuracy/precision of what is being reported through the news services. Again, you may be right. Any number of alternatives to the story's face value could be right.

I will admit that it occurred to me that this poor guy just couldn't stomach another trip to the Sandbox. Can't really say that I blame him.

It was quite cold and rainy last night on the Front Range. Though I do know that a climbing party survived a night spent on top of the 3rd Flatiron, and I'm pretty sure one of them wasn't wearing more than a cotton T-shirt.

I talked to a friend of mine who was a part of the volunteer SAR and according to what he was told the injured man wasn't moved because it would have been more dangerous to move him than to leave him there. Unfortunatly it is more and more looking like a search for a body. It's sad but I don't know why they would only be wearing cotton t-shirts at that time and up at around 7000ft where it has gotten to freezing at night. I hope that he ends up being found alive, marines are resourceful.

Just to get this point straight, Lance did not fall while bouldering. He slipped off of the Colorado Trail while hiking back down to the car. As he slipped off the trail, he hit his head on a what looked like a Juniper tree. I was there and saw the scene. It's in a gulley one or two rises to the West of West Ridge.

You can still volunteer to do searches at the NCAR parking lot at the end of Table Mesa Drive. We hiked in Walker Ranch yesterday for several hours. The official search teams flag the trees and write the date and search group information on the tape. If you do a search, you'll see this tape all over the place. The official search has covered quite a lot of ground already, but obviously this is not enough. So go out for a little while and help out if you like. Do a little something on Labor Day.

The search has been called off, I talked to a friend who was a searcher today. It was a total of 7000man hours, minus all the volunteers. It's to bad, hopefully we can learn from this so that future accidents can be avoided.

I hope he faked his death and hes gonna hide out in the mountains to crank and deek the man.

were here for you up north!

Hahaha. Hell yeah! We need an underground railroad for dirtbag climbers who got sucked into this whole mess in Iraq unwillingly. I'll put a candle in my front window so people can go squat in Squamish.

I don't mean to make any offense to those serving in Iraq or to the family of the victium, or possible escapee.